One of the most frequent Google searches that leads people to my blog is a search about managing culture. I have qualms about whether giving advice about how to manage culture is a responsible thing to do, since it may give managers the false impression that they can control their organization's culture.

Stephen Billing, at ChangingOrganisations.Com, posted a great blog entry this morning, asking "Is there such a thing as organisational culture?" In it, he writes

"I am just concerned about the idea that corporate culture is something (i.e. is a physical "thing" or something with properties similar to a physical thing)  that can be managed in the service of the most powerful managers."

I agree that corporate culture is not a thing. I also share Steven's concern about the idea that culture can be managed. In fact, in an entry last fall, I wrote

"the truth is that culture cannot always be managed. ... Understanding how employees may respond to change initiatives can help calibrate managers' expectations and remind them that their direct influence on corporate culture is limited.

(To read the rest of my earlier blog entry, see Organizational change: can we manage it? Another entry that may be of interest is building support for change.)

Essentially, Stephen and I see culture from the same angle. The angle is that culture is made up of patterns of interactions among organizational members. That's why managers have little ability to influence it -- they don't participate in many of those interactions. A manager cannot be in the middle of every conversation between coworkers. 

Where Stephen and I may differ is that I believe some kinds of interaction can be more influential than others -- specifically, the interactions that involve storytelling. If one employee tells a good story, the listeners may retell it to others. Thus, the story can have a ripple effect, influencing many interactions during which the storyteller is not even present. 

Of course, managers are not the only ones within organizations who can tell good stories. Some of the best stories, the ones that are retold the most often, are the stories that other organizational members tell about managers. Consider, for instance, how an enlisted sailor might tell a story about how his ship's captain held a luau for all those aboard. He could tell the story as a way to illustrate his belief that the captain believes everyone matters on his ship. Or, the story might be a way to illustrate a different belief -- that the captain is lax and wastes Navy resources. Or perhaps he sees the captain as trying to establish a connection with all the sailors aboard, but failing -- because the captain wouldn't allow beer at the luau.

So my conclusion is that if you want to shape your organization's culture, you should cultivate your storytelling ability. Beware, though, because every story you tell can become a kind of Pandora's box -- you cannot be sure about how the story's meaning may change as it ripples through the organization.

I saw a "wordle" on Jordi Comas' blog, the Nets We Weave, and I wanted to see what one for my blog would look like. Here it is: I wish I could figure out how to display the entire rectangle, rather than just a square.